Fresh from Wellspring Charitable Gardens - July 11, 2024
From the Garden Today… Cucumbers, Tomatoes, Purple Beans, Onions, Summer Squash, Carrots, Eggplant, Garlic, Dill, Cilantro, Basil, & Plums
Using Your Produce… by Julie Moreno
This week we have the first of our purple beans ready to harvest. These beans are just like green beans. The color comes from natural pigments. These pigments are sensitive to heat and when cooked the beans will turn green. You can eat a few of them raw, in a salad, but I still suggest cooking them. Raw beans are difficult to digest and too many can upset your stomach. I included this simple sautéed bean recipe this week. By adding just enough liquid to steam the beans, you can sauté the garlic and steam the beans in the same pan.
Sautéed Green Beans
1 pound green or purple beans,
ends removed, cut in half if desired
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter or oil
2 tablespoons white wine
¼ cup water
salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
* In a large sauté pan with a lid, cook the beans, garlic, salt and butter/oil over medium heat, for about 3-4 minutes, or until the garlic starts to brown. Add the white wine and continue cooking uncovered until the wine has evaporated. Add the water and cover the pan, cooking about 3-4 minutes more until the beans are cooked through. Taste and add salt and pepper if desired. Eat right away.
Pico de Gallo - Summer Fresh Salsa
3-4 large tomatoes, diced small
½ cup red or white onion, finely diced
1-2 hot peppers, finely diced
1 clove garlic, minced
3-4 tablespoons cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon lemon or lime juice
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
* Combine all ingredients and let sit for
15-20 minutes before serving, if possible.
Simple Tomatoes…
Tomatoes are ripe and can be picked before their color fully develops. Keep them on the counter for a few days while they ripen completely. Add just a bit of salt, basil, vinegar and olive oil to enjoy. Serving the tomatoes on toasted baguette slices makes the perfect appetizer or side dish for lunch or dinner.
Tomato-Basil Bruschetta
1 baguette, sliced into ¼ inch rounds
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup diced tomatoes
1 clove garlic, minced
3-4 tablespoons basil, sliced
1 teaspoon wine or balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
* Preheat the broiler to high. Drizzle the olive oil onto the baguette slices. Toast the baguette under the broiler, until very lightly colored, flipping once to toast each side. Remove from the oven and set aside. Combine the remaining ingredients and top each toasted baguette slice with a spoonful of the tomato-basil mixture. Enjoy right away.
Metaphors of Soil and Soul…
Fried Egg and Unexpected Favor
by Cindi J Martin
It is a sweltering 112 degrees Fahrenheit in our little town of Oakdale, California, today. I remember summer days like this in Sacramento where I grew up. I have a specific memory of riding my bike to swim at the recreation center near the American River in Rancho Cordova. Riding back home in the stifling heat, all I could think about was whether I could fry an egg on the asphalt like my friends at the pool had been talking about doing.
Today, as I walked to our mailbox in the scorching heat, I was tempted to get an egg and crack it right then and there to test that old theory. Instead, I walked across the bridge spanning our irrigation ditch to check on the chickens and make sure they had plenty of water. Nearing the coop, I was surprised to see a melon vine with a beautiful ripe cantaloupe growing where I had not planted it – beside an uncultivated garden patch with no water source.
I walked back to the house with a huge smile on my face and a ripe melon in my hand. I thought about the sheer delight of finding fresh ripe fruit I had not planted in an unexpected place on one of the hottest and most oppressive days of summer. Isn’t that just like our Creator? When we are broken and feeling the heat, somehow God brings someone or something unexpected into our trial to reduce the heat, lighten the load, help carry the burden, or comfort us with refreshing words of encouragement.
The Apostle Paul was willing to share in a letter to his friends just how desperate he and his companions were feeling. He was comforted by not only sharing his burden and his Hope but also by encouraging his friends to pray for him. He said it this way:
“For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a peril of death and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will deliver us, you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many” (2 Corinthians 1:8-11).
Prayer, like unexpected favor, directs our focus away from the fried egg on asphalt and toward the Living God on Whom we set our hope. He delivers us from the peril of death and places refreshing fruit into our hands.
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